Thank goodness for sports.

Anyone who knows me at all is probably surprised by my post title. I have never, ever been into sports. There are a few I can watch without gouging my eyes out --competition cheerleading, women's volleyball, and high school wrestling, for example, but I have never been a big fan of sports, and I have been involved in quite a few conversations about how our cultural overemphasis on sports is at the root of many of our current societal ills. But this week, I am thankful for them. More specifically, I am thankful for high school coaches.

I have excellent classroom management skills. It took me a while to get to this point, and I cringe a little when I think of how bad I was my first year. Unfortunately, not every kid responds to classroom management strategies. There are always a few that prove particularly difficult, and when you have several (like 4) in one class, things can get ugly; like, I need a drink at 8:30 in the morning ugly.

Lucky for me, all my my *ahem* challenging students are also athletes, and where you have athletes you have coaches, and where you have coaches, you have new and exciting disciplinary opportunities. I know not all schools are this way, but here our coaches are pretty dedicated to making sure their athletes perform well in all aspects of school, not just athletics. So all it took was one little email to each of the coaches, and this morning I walked into a whole new 1st period. I even got an apology from one kid. Hooray for sports!